Artificial
by Ethan-Silas
Summary: It's 3009 and a human boy and his brother are shipped away to start their service to artificial intelligence in a utopian/dystopian world. What happens when a particularly special bot has a connection with one of them? (Dan Howell and Phil Lester)


It was like an endless state of rain. Not angry rain, or peaceful rain, or any kind of rain Phillip was used to. It was an endless downpour of an empty, mindless rain that was so draining and wearing that you didn't even realize the sadness that filled you. That was what the A.I. saw as his pupils stared into deep brown human irises.

Then the human blinked, the world rushed back, and Phillip scanned the environment.

Luckily, they were alone in the empty white room, save a young looking human who, upon a closer scan, was almost certainly the rainy human's sibling.

Phillip looked away then, an odd jolt running through his system, before finding his objective once more. Two humans must be delivered; 130078 to the system Kaphen, and 130079 to his own residence.

"Present your numbers, please," Phillip bid. The rainy human turned, and Phillip noticed his clothing covered the number. He reached forward and moved the cloth, and upon the contact, another jolt blasted through him. He would have to see a mechanic later, and made a reminder in his system.

The rainy human inhaled. "Do you detect something, human?" Philip questioned.

"What?" The human asked, and Phillip sensed a bit of a defensive tone.

"You are smelling," the A.I. said brightly.

"... I'm breathing," The human said in a deep voice. Phillip appraised him from behind for a moment.

"I see." 130078 said the ink ground into his skin.

Phillip smiled at the brother human and bid him turn around. He did, and pulled his own collar down to show Phillip the 130079 inked into the back of his neck.

"Please, follow me, humans," Phillip said happily.

"As if we have a choice," muttered the brother human. Phillip noticed the rainy human touch the brother's arm gently, and yet another jolt blasted through him. The A.I. wondered what could have happened to have caused this.

He walked forward, out of the small holding room for Aging humans and into the familiar lobby of the Human Station.

"Oh, God," the brother human said as the three sentient beings approached a transportation pod.

"Are you alright, human?" Phillip turned, a look of concern forming on his face.

"... Yes. I hate these things."

Philip looked at the pod. "They do tend to have adverse effects on humans."

The rainy human made an unidentified noise, which Philip took a moment to register as a scoff.

"Alright, then. Prepare yourselves," Philip warned brightly. He placed his hand on the sensor and the skin-mimicking gelatin melted back into his wrist, the mechanical substance revealed, and wires more damning than human DNA spiralled from within, matching up with the key points to identify Philip's system and open the transportation pod.

"Adrian,"cooed a voice behind him, that of the rainy human. Yet another jolt rattled through Philip's system. He instantly recognized it to be a human 'name', something that was strictly forbidden, but for some reason, Philip felt no need to report the transgression. Perhaps he would after a trip to the mechanic. He led the humans into the small pod and typed in the identification number for Kaphen.

* * *

 **Dan watched as the robot's hand melted, silver insides glimmering in the too-bright Station lobby. As silver wires danced and spun in the air before finding their place among the many inserts on the sensor, Dan was both intrigued and disgusted, despite his bubbling feelings of fear and rage and panic and sorrow. He felt his younger brother grab hold of his hand, something the quasi-brave boy hardly did. He squeezed it, glancing at his brother through the corners of his eyes. Adrian wore a paper thin mask of defiance, though his fear shone bright enough that even an A.I. would surely see through.**

"Adrian," he said as quietly as humanly possible. His brother's eye twitched, and just a bit of the fear melted from his face. The younger boy squeezed back.

The A.I. entered the open pod, then, and Dan and Adrian entered after him, standing in front of him in the small, round pod. Dread diffused itself into the stew that was his emotions, brewing just under the surface, a millisecond before the pod shot away in some direction that Dan could not detect as motion sickness overwhelmed him and his brother simultaneously. But the trip was over in just a few moments, and the pod opened once more. Dan and his brother stumbled out, bent over, holding their heads. Dan realized too late that he was about to be sick, and emptied the content of his stomach onto the blinding white pavement outside of a chic white residence.

The A.I. spread it's remarkably humanesque hand across the small of Dan's back, prompting the human to shoot into a standing position. In his sick state, however, his body collapsed to it's knees, and the A.I. held him fast, whispering comfort words that only angered Dan. For a moment, the emotion spread across his face, before he caught himself and hid it underneath, like everything else. Dan knew too well the repercussions of showing the wrong emotion in front of the artificial beings.

Suddenly, the A.I. did something very unexpected, and a sharp pain shot through his neck several times. At first, he thought he had been reprimanded, but it hadn't been nearly painful or shocking enough to be that. The A.I. backed up for a moment and Dan looked up to see it quickly change the ink on the back of Adrian's neck, causing the boy to let out a string of curses. It must have received instruction that the numbers had been wrong… The A.I. took pause, then, blinking stupidly, and Dan tensed, waiting for his brother to be actually reprimanded, but the being moved on as if nothing happened. Confusion blossomed in Dan's chest, but he decided to just be thankful his brother hadn't been electrocuted again, for this time. Maybe it was a glitch.

"This is 130078's residence." the A.I. announced, approaching the building.

"And how in the bloody hell do we know who is who?" Adrian snapped. The robot turned and appraised the boy, and Dan tensed, but the A.I. didn't react negatively.

"Yours." He said instead. Terror and panic took the spotlight in Dan's mind, and he grabbed his brother's hand again. This was it, then. For the millionth time, a list of escape plans ran through his mind, but they were all fruitless. He knew their best hope for escape would come later.

He felt tears sting his eyes and yanked his brother into him as his chest seized. He squeezed, fighting viciously against himself to keep the burning tears in, but ended up wheezing into his brother a few times. This break caused a chain reaction in Adrian, and the younger brother began to cry as well. They held each other for a few long moments, before a tender hand that Dan only registered as non-human when logic kicked back in gently separated them.

"The Kaphen system will be suspicious if you are late, Adrian," the A.I. said. Pure shock flooded Dan, stronger than any repercussion, and from the look on his brother's face, it had floored him as well.

Adrian managed to compose himself after a moment, wiping his face until it was dry, though his eyes were still red and puffy.

"That is… Human emotion," the A.I. said tentatively.

"Yeah," Adrian said uncomfortably.

"Well. Come along, A… 130078." the being led Adrian to the residence, and awkwardly, Dan followed.

The A.I. did the same wire unlocking thing to the sensor beside the entrance, and it opened to reveal a female bot.

"Philip," she greeted emotionlessly.

"Kaphen," the A.I. responded evenly. "Your human has arrived."

The female bot appraised Adrian for a long moment. "Thank you, Philip."

"You're welcome." Philip said. Dan swallowed. Kaphen stepped to the side, and awkwardly, he stepped into the residence.

"Come along, 130078." She bade, walking away. The door closed, and Dan's heart sunk.

"Come, human," the being said softly, and Dan followed him back to the pod.

"Philip… Is your title?" Dan asked quietly.

"Yes," Philip said. He entered the pod, and Dan followed suit. The pod door closed, and as the being entered in the identification for where ever it was headed next, he uttered yet another thing that surprised the human. "And what is your 'name', human?"

"I… am Daniel. Or Dan." He said, cautiously, before once again the pod shot away. The trip lasted only a fraction of a second this time, however, leaving Dan dizzy but upright.

"I see." Philip said. "Come."

They exited the pod and it disappeared this time. Philip led them towards a residence that was identical to the one that Adrian had been left at. A pang of sadness filled his chest, but Dan pushed it away. He would find a way to leave, and he would bring his brother. He was sick of brooding while letting the emotionless droids control him and his brother. Doing that had cost the boys their mother. Pain filled every inch of his body then, and he clenched his fists and forced himself to think of something, anything, else.

It was rare that Dan saw the outside. He examined it all as Philip slowly led them toward the entrance to the second residence. The ground was all white squares, with grey lines separating road from walkway from residency. The sky was the lightest shade of blue; it took Dan a moment to tell that it was not, in fact, white. The residences were all white. Everything was white.

White was by far Dan's least favorite color. He absentmindedly studied the Philip system as it opened the entrance. They were just human enough to be instantly recognizable but just off enough to send chills down Dan's spine. They were all around 190 centimeters tall, which was still shorter than Dan, who stood at 191 centimeters. The height of the robots had been chosen to be taller than humans without being impractical, and according to his mother, Dan had nearly been 'euthanized' over his height. He had no clue what that meant, and neither had she, but Dan had always assumed it was something rather unpleasant. All bots were a shiny white, a material that was sickeningly similar to human skin, but underneath was tangles and tangles of whatever made a robot work. Their faces were crude masks that resembled humans, and their head were smooth and hairless. They did, however, have proper eyes. This being in particular had striking eyes, which were grey and blue and green all at once with golden around the middle. Dan did not know how they acquired their eyes, only that they seemed very much to be real.

When the door opened, there was no being behind it, and confusion sparked in Dan once more before Philip entered the residence. "Are… You…" Dan didn't know how to ask the question, but thankfully, Philip seemed to know.

"You're my human, Dan." He said and smiled at him. Dan inhaled slowly, thinking this over, before looking away. The confusion stayed in his chest, and he looked to the side, thinking even more. Why was this A.I. system so odd? A million things danced around in Dan's head before the being walked past Dan.

"This is the entrance room. It has a sofa, a chair, a table, and a telly. Once a day, the carpet must be vacuumed." Dan hugged himself… Tasks. Of course. That was all humans were for, anyway. Anger bubbled in his throat. Perhaps the A.I. wasn't as different as Dan had begun to think. Philip motioned to the left. "That is the kitchen. Dishes must be in the machine at all times. The counters and flooring must always be clean, and everything must always be in order." They walked through the hallway leading to a closed off room. "This is the charging room. It does not require much upkeep." Philip led Dan back to the entrance room, where another hallway branched off. "The two doors on the right are your bedroom and the waste room. Both must be kept sanitary and presentable. The door to the left is my recreation room and my waste room. Both must be kept sanitary and presentable." Philip looked at Dan. "Other than that, you are free to do as you wish, within this residence."

Confusion swelled in his chest. Recollections of his mother telling himself and his brother stories about the horrible and busy schedule humans were forced to adhere to played in his mind… Perhaps each A.I. was different? Dan closed his eyes. He didn't know what to think.

"Come into your waste room. I will check your health status."

Reluctantly, Dan followed the bot into the room.


End file.
